Oxford Female Institute
Oxford, Butler County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
Oxford Female Institute Chartered in 1849, the Institute was the first of three women's colleges established in Oxford. The original brick building was completed in 1850, and forms the core structure. The Reverend John Witherspoon Scott, a member of Miami University's early faculty, headed the Institute. In 1867, the college merged with Oxford Female Institute and later became the Oxford College for Women. Miami University acquired the building in 1928: in 1930 the Daughters of the American Revolution rededicated it as the "Caroline Scott Harrison Memorial." From 1929-1998 it served as a Miami dormitory, nicknamed "Ox College." Since 2003, the three-story building has housed the Oxford Community Arts Center. The structure is the oldest extant women's college building in Ohio. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Caroline Scott Harrison 1932~1982 Born in 1932 four blocks east of here in her parent's home, Caroline Scott completed her education at the Oxford Female Institute It was headed by her father, Reverend John Witherspoon Scott, formerly a professor at Miami University and a strong advocate for women's education. In 1853, Caroline Scott married Benjamin Harrison, a Miami University graduate, in her parents' home directly across the street. After leaving Oxford, Harrison, as an active First Lady during most of her husband's presidency from 1889-1893, oversaw renovation of the White House and became the first President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. An accomplished artist, she was instrumental in designing Harrison's presidential china. She died in the White House in 1892 and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Erected by Citizens for Historic and Preservation Services
The Story
Chartered in 1849, the Oxford Female Institute was the first of three women's colleges in Oxford, its 1850 brick building headed by the Reverend John Witherspoon Scott, an early Miami University faculty member and champion of women's education. His daughter Caroline Scott completed her education here before marrying Miami graduate Benjamin Harrison and, as First Lady, becoming the first President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The building later served as a Miami dormitory and today houses the Oxford Community Arts Center—the oldest surviving women's college building in Ohio.
Why it matters
The Institute embodies the mid-19th-century movement to open higher education to American women, and it launched one of the era's most influential First Ladies.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the mid-nineteenth century, higher education in America was overwhelmingly a men's world. The idea that young women deserved a serious college education was still contested, and the institutions willing to provide one were few and often fragile. Ohio, with its dense network of new colleges, became one of the places where that idea took root and grew.
Oxford was already a college town, home to Miami University, and it drew educators who believed learning should not stop at the schoolhouse door for girls. Out of that conviction came a cluster of women's schools, of which the Oxford Female Institute, chartered in 1849, was the first.
Its brick building went up in 1850, a solid, hopeful statement in a young republic that was still deciding what women were entitled to learn. That the structure survives today makes it a rare physical link to the earliest years of the movement.
People & events
The Institute was headed by the Reverend John Witherspoon Scott, a member of Miami University's early faculty and a determined advocate for women's education. He gave the school both its academic backbone and its purpose, at a time when such advocacy was far from universal.
His daughter, Caroline Scott, completed her education at the Institute her father led. She later married Benjamin Harrison, a Miami University graduate, in her parents' home nearby. Years afterward, as an active First Lady during her husband's presidency, she oversaw a renovation of the White House and became the first President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. An accomplished artist, she had a hand in designing the presidential china. She died in the White House and is buried in Indianapolis.
The building itself lived several lives. In 1867 the college merged with the Oxford Female Institute and later became the Oxford College for Women. Miami University acquired it in 1928, and in 1930 the Daughters of the American Revolution rededicated it as a memorial to Caroline Scott Harrison. For decades it served as a Miami dormitory nicknamed "Ox College," and since 2003 it has housed the Oxford Community Arts Center.
Its place in the American story
The Oxford Female Institute belongs to the broad nineteenth-century movement that pried open the doors of higher education to American women — a change that reshaped the country's intellectual and civic life. As the oldest surviving women's college building in Ohio, and a site on the National Register of Historic Places, it is a tangible witness to that shift.
It also connects a small Ohio classroom to the White House. The education a young woman received here helped prepare her for a public life at the very center of American power, and for leadership of a national organization that endures to this day.
The building's long second act — dormitory, memorial, and now an arts center — is its own kind of American story. Communities that value their history find new uses for old walls rather than tearing them down, keeping a nineteenth-century structure alive and full of people well into a new century.
If you visit
Look for the three-story brick building in Oxford that now houses the Oxford Community Arts Center. The oldest part of it is the original 1850 structure — the very core around which everything else grew — so you are looking at some of the earliest college architecture built for women in the state.
Because it's an active arts center, the place still hums with the kind of purpose it was built for: learning, creating, and gathering. Take in the building's age and dignity, and consider how many different lives have passed through it, from nineteenth-century students to twentieth-century dormitory residents to today's artists.
It makes a rich stop on a walk through historic Oxford, a town layered with education history. Please respect that it's a working community building — but the exterior alone tells much of the story, and it sits comfortably alongside the town's other landmarks.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Caroline Scott Harrison
- · John Witherspoon Scott
- · Benjamin Harrison
Themes & tags
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